


The Pretty Things Have Teeth Too

by AsagiStilinski



Series: YOI Spooky Week 2019 [11]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Character's Name Spelled as Viktor, Character's Name Spelled as Yuri, Creepy, Lonely Katsuki Yuuri, Long-Haired Victor Nikiforov, M/M, Mates, Merman Victor Nikiforov, Merpeople, Predator/Prey, Sad Katsuki Yuuri, Supernatural Elements, creepy merpeople, meet-creepy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-23 10:04:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21318388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: Yuri Katsuki has always loved mermaids, he's always wanted tobea mermaid, so when he's mourning the tragedies of his life at a nearby lake and suddenly sees the very thing he had always wanted to be, the thing he had always loved most, arealmermaid....Is it so unbelievable that he made a few decisions without quite thinking them through?
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Series: YOI Spooky Week 2019 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1530083
Comments: 5
Kudos: 107
Collections: Yuri!!! on Ice Spooky Week 2019





	The Pretty Things Have Teeth Too

**Author's Note:**

> Day six part two- "Elements and nature"

Ever since Yuri Katsuki was a child, he had always loved the water

He loved all forms of water, from swimming pools to oceans, from rivers to lakes, from rainstorms to even iced over ponds

He just... found something about it so extremely peacefull, even when the water was rough and tossed about with angry waves or beneath the sky of a heavy storm

He didn't care, he still loved it

And he loved all of the creatures in it

He loved all of the fish and the dolphins and the wales, he loved the sharks and the rays and the coral, he loved every last sea urchin and starfish

Yuri often said that if he could have been a mermaid, he would have left behind his entire life to do so

But he had never really thought that would be possible....

Until one day, when he was twenty-three, and had gone out to the local lake to mourn

He had always loved bringing his dog to this particular lake in the summertime, but now....

Yuri hiccuped quietly, shaking his head and hiding his face as tears slowly dripped down from his cheeks, hitting his legs and the dock and finally the water

He was so miserable.....

He had never felt this kind of pain before

Without Vicchan, he was alone

Sure he still had his parents and his sister but... that was really it.....

He had no freinds, he had no... _prospect_ of freinds, even....

And he certainly had no significant other, or even any hope of ever having such a thing....

And as if his completely empty social life wasn't bad enough, his career was at a standstill too

Oh who was he kidding? He didn't even _have_ a career

He worked at a bookstore wile trying to figure his life out after abruptly quitting veterinary school, finding out too late that he had an even weaker stomach than he thought and that the idea of an animal not surviving in his care was just too much for him to handle

He still had student loans to pay off too, and with the bookstore job barely bringing in enough to live off of plus not having any idea what he could possibly do with his life....

The reality of his life was starting to crash into him and he _really_ didn't like it

And so he sat on the edge of the dock and cried

He cried for Vicchan, he cried for his missed opportunities, he cried for everything he had ever done wrong, every last mistake that had gotten him to this point, and _oh_ did he cry

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, the water below began to ripple

Yuri stopped his crying abruptly, watching in confusion as the ripples started moving towards him, something starting to emerge from the water

And then he saw it

The picture of beauty

The sight he had always ached so much to see

_A mermaid_

Or... perhaps more accurately: A mer_man_, if the flat chest was to be an indicating factor

Yuri figured that it really should be -unless the merman informed him otherwise in regards to his gender, ofcourse-, as it was the only indicating factor he could find _at all_, everything else about the creature looked pretty androgynous

Long silver hair, that glinted prettily in the moonlight, and pale skin that shone brightly against the darkness of the night sky, and his eyes....

More blue than any body of water he had ever seen

Yuri wanted to jump in

He wanted to jump in and swim out and _touch_....

But he was no fool and he knew that he should be cautious, the merman might spook, merfolk were wild creatures weren't they?

Yuri should go about this the way he would go about greeting a wild animal, shouldn't he?

His throat was suddenly dry and sore, as if he had been sleeping all night with his mouth open

His breaths burned in his lungs and the water looked more and more inviting, but he wouldn't waste this opportunity, he wouldn't be so foolish

So, as carefully as he could, he extended his hand, crawling to the edge of the dock and holding it out in polite greeting

The merman continued to stare at him, curious it seemed, before he began to swim forward, making Yuri's heart race more and more as he moved closer to the dock

And the closer he came, the more details Yuri could see

There were gills going along the edges of his ribcage, and Yuri could faintly see a dark tail tip duck in and out of the water as he moved, but Yuri couldn't make out the color in the darkness

The merman swam like a dolphin, bobbing up and down, his body curving beautifully with the movements, like a dancer, and then, all of a sudden, there he was, almost close enough for Yuri to touch

_Almost_

They locked eyes, and for the longest moment, neither said a word, before eventually, Yuri chanced it

"H-Hello..." he breathed, utterly captivated by the merman

"Hello," the creature responded, his voice light and soft, but with a thick accent clinging around it like gravel, and Yuri wondered if, perhaps, he didn't speak human language often

"It's.... it's a pleasure to meet you," Yuri said lamely, immediately regretting it, but the merman seemed amused, even letting a small tick of a smile grace his otherworldly features

"The pleasure is mine," he replied simply

"You... you're a merman,"

It was so dumb, Yuri wanted to take it back

"And you are a human," the merman replied with a teasing smirk, apparently enjoying their back-and-forth

"Do you.... do you have a name?"

The merman nodded slowly, and Yuri held his breath

"Viktor,"

Ah, a foreign name, maybe Viktor wasn't from Japan...?

"I-I'm Yuri,"

There was a sound that Viktor made, like a trill, like some sort of clicking, chirping sound that sounded almost like rattling bones

"I know a Yuri, he's... like me, though,"

_Amazing_

"W-Wow, that... that's cool,"

"He lives at home," Viktor continued, taking Yuri by surprise

"Oh then... this.... isn't your home?"

A sad, sullen look came over Viktor's face, a small pout and a look of homesickness, as he slowly shook his head

"I am trapped here, a storm brought me in,"

"A storm....?"

"Many, many moons ago, I've been trapped here for so long.... I want to go home...."

Yuri remembered... a storm many moons ago....

There had been a tsunami that hit last April

It was October now

"I'm all alone here," Viktor continued, closing his eyes breifly, clearly in pain

This poor man had been stranded and alone in this fucking lake for almost seven months....

Yuri's heart snapped in half

"I just.... I just want to go home," he repeated with a miserable sniff

"I want to go back to the ocean, or... atleast have some company here...."

"How can I help?" Yuri asked eagerly

"I need legs, so that I can get out of here and find the ocean,"

"Ok, how do I get them for you?"

Viktor's expression quirked breifly, as if he were trying to word his next sentence very carefully

"I need your's,"

"Mine...?"

"Oh it would only be temporary," he explained

"Just for a few hours, I'll give you my tail, and you'll give me your legs, I'll go back to the sea and when the spell wears off you can climb out of this lake,"

"I could..... I could have your tail....? I could..... be like you?" Yuri breathed, not bothering to hide his awe

Viktor bit back a smirk, but the glee clearly reached his eyes

"Do you... _want_ to be?"

"Y-Yes! Yes I do! I would do anything to be a merperson, anything at all!!"

"Anything... at all..." Viktor repeated slowly, his voice lightening slightly as he swam a little closer, though he purposely avoided Yuri's hand

"Would you.... stay in the water for the rest of your life?"

"Yes," Yuri promised immediately

"Would you.... stay with _me_, for the rest of your life?"

"Yes," he agreed just as quickly

"Then... would you _give to me_.... your life? In return for a new one, under the sea, with me, and a tail?"

And just as easily as before

"_Yes_,"

"Oh Yuri," Viktor sighed softly, swimming closer.... closer....

"You've made me so happy,"

And then, faster than a shark attack, Viktor's arms shot out of the water and wrapped around Yuri, yanking him down beneath the surface

Everything from there was a blur

There was struggling, and a burning in his lungs unlike anything Yuri had ever felt

His glasses fell away to the bottom of the lake but he could still see well enough to watch as Viktor opened his mouth wide and row after row of razor sharp teeth appeared before him

Yuri couldn't remember anything after that

~+~

_"You'll be ok, my little guppy,"_

Everything was burning from the inside out

Yuri felt like his lungs were on fire

_"Don't be scared, this is what you wanted,"_

He didn't have the strength to open his eyes, but he knew they were on land

There was something vaguely warm wrapped around him, like a blanket or a coat or something, but he was still freezing half to death

_"And I'll take **such** good care of you,"_

He was being carried, he could tell, and that was Viktor's voice...

Was he being carried by Viktor...?

He couldn't tell

He couldn't stay awake anymore

He just.... passed back out

~+~

His memories weren't entirely his own

He was watching Viktor's play out, as if he were watching a movie

They flashed before his eyes like a slideshow, soundless and slow

It hadn't been a storm that had brought Viktor to the lake

It had been _people_

**Humans**

They had caught him via a fishing boat, pulled him up with a net full of tuna

He tried so hard to get out, to be free, but as soon as the fishermen saw the pretty face and exotic tail they realized what they had and never had any intention of letting him go

The ride to shore was hell on earth

Every breath burned, it was like a feeling of constant suffocation, and Viktor was only ever given enough water splashed against his gills to stay alive

Hours

It took them hours to get him to shore, to drag him into a fish market, limp and barely alive, too far gone to fight or scream for help, and toss him into a shallow tank

The water was old and dirty but it was atleast enough to submerge himself in- mostly....

Viktor waited there for more hours, until his tank was lifted up from the market floor and placed on a truck

He heard them saying words like "pay day" and "sell" and "dead or alive but alive would be better", he heard them talk of selling him to the highest bidder, auctioning him off to scientists, of _eating his **flesh**_....

He had to get away

He _had_ to get away

He saw a lake down a hill from the road, and he managed to pull himself out of the tank and roll down the hill

The pain was unimaginable, the suffocating mixed with harsh April chill mixed with the wounds that were quickly cutting through his tail and scraping up his skin and bruising every inch of his being

He forced himself to crawl along the land, dragging himself against the rocks and grass and dirt, and finally slipped into the water

In the water, he was powerfull

In the water, he had his strength back

In the water, he waited for the foolish humans who had tried to capture him and pulled them down into the lake, one by one

He drowned them, and then he devoured them

And for six months he repeated the process whenever a human who may be trouble came to the lake

Lure, and drown, and devour

He had tried at first to ask for help, the way he had asked for Yuri's help, but time after time humans proved themselves to be selfish and dangerous creatures and Viktor had to defend himself

And so he grew cynical

He grew cynical and angry and whenever presented with the opportunity to protect himself- and the rest of his kind- from the dangerous creatures, he took it happily

Yuri had been an exception to the rule

Yuri, who had been so eager to help

Yuri, who wanted nothing in return

Yuri, who truly seemed to care for Viktor and who admired merfolk for what they were and not what Yuri could use them to gain

Yuri was the exception

So when Viktor drowned him, he did not devour him, like he had with all of the other humans

Instead, he gave him The Breath Of Life, a mermaid's sacred breath that would turn a human into a mermaid themselves after death

This is the state they were in now, Yuri realized belatedly

Viktor had temporarily taken his legs, a spell that would only last for a few hours, and Yuri had gained a tail for the rest of his life

It was after these memories played out in front of him that all fear vanished, and nothing but sympathy and pain and a wish for things to get better for Viktor flowed through Yuri, like a turbulent ocean wave

~+~

"Yuuuriiii, do you see one?"

Yuri glanced over his shoulder at the familiar bob of silver that came to appear at the surface of the water

"Right up there Vitya," Yuri replied as he swam a little bit closer to the shore, not nearly enough to be in danger, but close enough to see a bit better

Viktor tilted his head up, grinning as his eyes locked on the human who was currently walking along the shore, clearly debating getting into the water

Yuri and Viktor had a rule about their prey: They would never eat anyone who didn't deserve it

They would test them, see if they were pure of heart... _or not_... and if not?

Then they would dine on something far better than just fish that night

"Would you like to place a bet, my beloved?"

Yuri glanced over his shoulder at Viktor, sighing softly in contentment as their tails wrapped around eachother

"I think I could go for a bet yes, winner gets the kill?"

"Yes, unless, ofcourse, there's no kill to make, in that case, I'll fashion you a lovely string of pearls,"

"Ah... then you're betting that we _will_ hunt tonight?"

"Ofcourse my darling," Viktor grinned, kissing Yuri's cheek as his eyes gleamed dangerously

"I'll always believe the worst in humankind, after all, in all these years, _you_ were the only one to pass the test,"


End file.
